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Centre for Public Service Partnerships Appoints its First Director of Research

Posted on 03 Jun 2008

The Centre for Public Service Partnerships, established in 2007, has appointed Professor Helen Sullivan as its first Director of Research and Palmer Chair of Public Service Partnerships.

Helen specialises in the study of working across boundaries - researching, supporting and evaluating collaborative practice in a range of settings.

On her appointment, Helen said: "This is a unique opportunity to work across the range of public service partnerships to improve our understanding about the potential, and limits of, different kinds of partnership arrangements and provide better advice to policy makers and practitioners."

Helen began her career in local government, working for Coventry and Birmingham City Councils, but this is by no means her first foray into academic life. In 1994 she took up a research post funded through the 'Public Policy Partnership' initiative between Birmingham City Council and the University of Birmingham. She worked in the School of Public Policy as a lecturer until 2002, when she left to take up her current post at the University of the West of England, first as Director of Research, and later, Chair of Urban Governance.

Director of the Centre, John Tizard said: "I am delighted that Helen is joining the Centre as our first Director of Research. Building on her extensive academic experience of public service partnerships and her commitment to working with the policy and practitioner communities I am confident that she will make an enormous contribution to the Centre."

The Centre for Public Service Partnerships aims to be a leading source of academic expertise and evidence based on research and analysis of all forms of public service partnerships, collaborative working and networked governance and service delivery including

public to public sector agency partnerships

public sector third sector partnerships

public private partnerships

partnerships between service users and citizens with governance, commissioning and provision

The Centre will offer a forum for stakeholders to debate and share experiences. It will challenge orthodoxy and vested interests in order to identify new models for effective partnering and collaboration.

The Centre has core funding for five years thanks to the generosity of the founding sponsors Keith Palmer, Balfour Beatty and the Aldridge Foundation.